


And empty was the expanse of the sky

by Pseudothyrum



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pre-Canon, Protective Richie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 13:51:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3980434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pseudothyrum/pseuds/Pseudothyrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richie tries to shield his brother from the storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And empty was the expanse of the sky

Their father blows through their lives like a storm. There is always a threatening heat in the air, an electric tension that frays nerves, prickling at the nape of the neck. Suddenly the heat breaks, lightning crackles and thunder booms. He is a force of nature, inscrutable and unknowable. They learn to read some signs, to feel the warning in the sudden stillness of the air, to feel the shifting of the sand beneath their feet as the water retreats, the terrible calm before it all rushes back. In the aftermath they pick up the scattered pieces and they put together the broken things. In the aftermath they lean together, prop each other up, the only broken things that won’t ever quite be put back together again.

***

Richie plays the little games that he sets for him, runs himself in ragged circles to clear hurdles hidden in a path that he can’t see, because sometimes this keeps the storm from breaking. Because Seth has a smart mouth and little else, and he can barely talk himself out of trouble without somehow talking himself back into it. Richie’s never been one for talking problems into neat little bows, not like Seth, but he can run. He runs as though it is possible to escape a storm unscathed, though it never is. He runs as though it is possible to run away. 

***

His brother is proud, Richie knows this, and he wants the world to think that he is untouchable, that he is devoid of deep emotion, or caring. But he is not. He is not hollow like Richie is, like Richie has been told he is. There is a spark in him, a flame that gutters in the gale and then burns all the brighter for having wavered. This is his greatest strength and also, Richie thinks, his greatest weakness. His brother cannot make the hard decisions and he cannot see what must be done. He has made space in his heart for forgiveness, which is neither asked by nor owed to the clouds. Richie knows that this spark can be smothered, and it will, because blood is thicker than water, but it can douse a fire just as easily. Richie knows he must guard it, and protect his brother from his own nature. Blood might be thicker than water, but flesh and blood will burn as well as wood.

***  
The fire is hot, too, too hot, when Richie pulls Seth out of it. He feels the smoke coiling in his lungs, but no matter how hard he coughs he cannot expel it from himself. He had thought he was hollow, as he had been always told by his father, by his teachers. But he knows now that this is not true, or was not. He can feel whatever is inside him burning away. He cannot get the taste of lighter fluid off his tongue. The smell will linger on his hands for weeks, and in the hollow spaces of his chest forever. 

***

In some future time he may learn to regret this. For now they lie panting under the sky, bruise dark and full of stars. Heat is radiating from the burning house, his skin is scalded by its glow but his flesh is cold. The sky is draped over the world, and it is bruise dark and it is full of stars and all the clouds have boiled away. Finally the sky is empty.


End file.
